Do your keyboards behave properly when using with Android mobile devices?

[Lunatique]

For those of you who do plug your keyboards into Android mobile devices (using OTG adapter), have you noticed that some keyboard shortcuts for text navigation/editing don't work properly? I'm finding that's the case on my Galaxy Note 3, and I've tried with three different keyboards.

Some examples of strange behavior:

L-Ctrl+Left/Right arrows - Normal behavior
R-Ctrl+Left/Right arrows - Jumps to beginning/end of the line, instead of jumping one word at a time.

L-Ctrl+Up/Down arrows - Does nothing at all, not even moving the cursor one step up or down.
R-Ctrl+Up/Down arrows - Jumps one screen up and down (same as Page Up/Down), instead of one paragraph at a time.

I know that some keyboard shortcuts that work on a PC or Mac don't work on Android or iOS, but what's strange here is that the left and right Ctrl keys behave differently, while other text editing/navigation shortcuts related to the ones above do work correctly on both sides of the keyboard (shift activated shortcuts work fine on both sides of the keyboard).

Anyone else have this problem?

[Lunatique]

I can't be the only one here who uses a hardware USB keyboard with an Android device. No one else had this problem?

[hwood34]

Is it just the OS that creates the different behaviors for L/R mods?

[Lunatique]

Is it just the OS that creates the different behaviors for L/R mods?

I'm not sure. I've only tried it on my Galaxy Note 3 (running Samsung's latest OS update, and using Nova Launcher), and in the different apps I've tried, including third-party apps, the behavior is the same.

[hwood34]

Is it just the OS that creates the different behaviors for L/R mods?

I'm not sure. I've only tried it on my Galaxy Note 3 (running Samsung's latest OS update, and using Nova Launcher), and in the different apps I've tried, including third-party apps, the behavior is the same.

Hmm, I'll try it out once I get back home on my galaxy tab

[Oobly]

Very interested in this as I'm developing a keyboard to use with USB OTG on portable devices. I suspect it's OS-specific. I will also test at home on my Note, Note 2 and Xperia Z1 Compact, although they're all Android devices. I can try it on a friend's Nokia N8 Symbian device when next he visits, too

[Oobly]

Hmm my own design board sends the same signal for both left and right Ctrl and they seem to behave like the left Ctrl of your board. Seems that Android interprets Right Ctrl+arrows as Home, End, PgUp, PgDn. Will modify this post once I've tried my KBT Pure.

[Lunatique]

We definitely need a bigger pool of samples, so please, anyone else who uses OTG USB connectors with their Android devices, try your keyboards and see if the behavior is universal and OS-based.

[Oobly]

With my KBT Pure and my GoN NerD60, both Ctrl keys work like you describe the left Ctrl working, ie: as expected with no weird behaviour. This is with a Note 2 and Android 4.1.1.

Left and right modifier keys do send different keycodes and it's up to the OS what to do with them.

What keyboards and which USB OTG cable are you using? My cable is from Pexon.

[Lunatique]

With my KBT Pure and my GoN NerD60, both Ctrl keys work like you describe the left Ctrl working, ie: as expected with no weird behaviour. This is with a Note 2 and Android 4.1.1.

Left and right modifier keys do send different keycodes and it's up to the OS what to do with them.

What keyboards and which USB OTG cable are you using? My cable is from Pexon.

I tried with Leopold FC660C, Matias Mini Quiet Pro, RealForce 87U S-Type, and old HP rubber-dome keyboard from the late 90's,

The OTG cable is from VTZERO: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J3G8M7A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Oobly]

I suspect it's just the latest versions of Android handling the right Ctrl keycodes differently. AFAIK, the OTG cable doesn't do any processing, so what the keyboard sends, the OS sees. In which case it's all about the OS.

From my testing, Android 4.1.1 handles both codes as a standard Ctrl.

If you want to change the default behaviour, you can try External Keyboard Helper and change the mappings.

[Lunatique]

I suspect it's just the latest versions of Android handling the right Ctrl keycodes differently. AFAIK, the OTG cable doesn't do any processing, so what the keyboard sends, the OS sees. In which case it's all about the OS.

From my testing, Android 4.1.1 handles both codes as a standard Ctrl.

If you want to change the default behaviour, you can try External Keyboard Helper and change the mappings.

I actually just bought External Keyboard Helper not long ago, and I haven't started experimenting with the mapping feature yet. I guess now I have a good reason to.

Thanks for your help--really appreciate it.